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Originally Posted by clyde
Allowing test drives adds thousands of dollars to a car? I don't believe it. Eliminate all expenses that don't directly return revenue because their finances are so precarious they have no other choice? I can believe that.
Tesla has shown some creativity in the past. Why not now? If the goal is to eliminate the financial burden on the company, there are ways to do it without saying fuck you to their customers.
Aside: maybe you're right. Maybe it's not a fuck you to their customers. You're their customer, not Joe Blow on the street. Maybe it's just a, "Fuck you, Joe Blow. Ima hang with my buddies that are buying what Ima selling and fuck you what you think!" Maybe it's just a fuck you to all the people that might possibly become their customers if they weren't such dicks.  Put a trailer office in a broken up parking lot with a few cars, like Enterprise, and offer 30, 60, or 120 minute rentals for $50 or $200—which can be applied towards purchase. Whatever. Maybe save money and don't have a trailer or people, just cars, and just a few of them. Customers book their rentals online, get a code to unlock and the start the car at the appointed time. It still sucks compared to traditional test drives, but it solves their problem without.
Run a never ending stream of arrive and drive events, also a nominal charge that can also be applied towards purchase.
These ideas have drawbacks to conventional test drives, but have some advantages for both buyers and seller. Nominal fees, limited availability, and inconvenient times and locations weeds out many of the lookie loos and the ones that wind up not buying cover the cost of running the show. Maybe not perfect, but a hell of lot closer to perfect while also solving their problem of their own making than yelling, "fuck you!" in their *potential* customers' faces. |
I expect that they'll backtrack on this no test drive thing in a few months-- as you point out there's plenty of less crappy ways to save money but still offer test drives. Seems like a lot of their troubles could've been avoided by just having regular franchise dealers. I know that's anathema but, to me, Tesla has become a case study in how great it is to have traditional dealers. Having to self-manage showrooms, servce centers and inventory across the whole world is a huge thing to try and take on. Now, if they eventually move to something like a month-to-month subscription model, then sure go nuts with doing everything online.
And, yeah, as a possible customer my impression of Tesla now is that they're dicks. The whole f'ed up customer hostile CPO buying process is what first made me arrive at that conclusion.